{"id":710,"date":"2016-11-09T08:51:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T13:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/?p=710"},"modified":"2017-03-20T13:16:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T17:16:53","slug":"tales-from-the-trenches-get-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/2016\/11\/09\/tales-from-the-trenches-get-moving\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales from the Trenches: Get Moving!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wes\"
\n<\/a>By: Wes Cochrane (L’18)<\/p>\n

Can you just be Jack for a moment and allow me to peddle you some magic beans?\u00a0 At this point in the fall semester, with exams approaching and the flickering feelings of burnout rearing their unwelcome heads, you may be looking for some magic beans, that silver bullet, that little dose of something extra, to push you through the end of the semester.\u00a0 No, I\u2019m not trying to sell you drugs.\u00a0 In fact, I want to unlock what might be, for some of you, an untapped well of potential already within the confines of your mind.\u00a0 It turns out that this is free and available to you, even now.\u00a0 The investment is minimal, but the yield is great.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about exercise. \u00a0Regular movement of your body\u2014whether it is running or merely a brisk walk\u2014has a profound effect on your brain.<\/strong>\u00a0 Specifically, it improves your memory and ability to think clearly.\u00a0 There is a large and growing body of science to substantiate the remarkable links between exercise and the brain.\u00a0\u00a0 I intend to highlight the basic elements of this science and show you, practically, what you can implement today to begin thinking more clearly and remembering more effectively as you ramp up for exams and continue on your professional journey.<\/p>\n

Numerous studies have confirmed clear links between exercise and two key parts of the brain: the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus<\/a> is the part of the brain responsible for short and long-term memory consolidation.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, the hippocampus is one of the first areas to deteriorate in Alzheimer\u2019s disease\u2014a disease resulting in increasing memory loss and disorientation.\u00a0 The prefrontal cortex<\/a> particularly affects our brain\u2019s executive functions such as reasoning, planning, organization, consequence evaluation, learning from mistakes, maintaining focus, and working memory.<\/p>\n

When we exercise, when we move, we activate these parts of the brain and stimulate our brain\u2019s ability to learn and perform other cognitive functions. \u00a0Dr. John J. Ratey, MD<\/a>, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says that exercise creates Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor<\/a> (BDNF), a protein which floods the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, causing new brain cells to grow and \u201clog\u201d new information. \u00a0\u00a0Dr. Ratey has called BDNF \u201cMiracle Grow\u201d for the brain. This process of growth is called \u201cneurogenesis.\u201d \u00a0A 2007 Columbia University study<\/a> concluded that exercise increased neurogenesis and reversed the effects of memory loss.<\/p>\n

Schools across the country have caught on to these studies and have implemented rigorous physical education programs for their students.\u00a0 One school district in particular really stood out and highlighted the impressive impact of fitness on the brain\u2019s ability to learn and function.\u00a0 School District 203 in Naperville, Illinois, developed a mature PE program over a couple decades, featuring daily heart-rate training for all of their students.\u00a0 In 1999, the school district participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Sciences (TIMSS) test\u2014an international test that ranks the students of the world\u2019s countries according to performance on standardized math and science tests.\u00a0 Comparing eighth graders, Naperville School District 203 placed among the very top performers<\/a>\u00a0that year.\u00a0 Other school districts have seen equally impressive positive correlations between fitness and performance on test scores in math and reading.<\/p>\n

In real life, what could it look like to implement the type of exercise regimen that could generate this \u201cmiracle grow\u201d for the brain?\u00a0 Most of these studies simply had subjects walk briskly for 30 minutes a day, four days a week.\u00a0 The real benefit simply comes from elevating your heart rate and breaking\u00a0a sweat.\u00a0 A basic way to enjoy these cognitive benefits could be walking.\u00a0 On the other hand, some of you may be interested in running a few miles a day for a few days a week.\u00a0 Alternatively, some may choose to pursue \u201cboot camp\u201d classes, high-intensity aerobics classes, or regular pick-up games of basketball or soccer.\u00a0 Also, interval training, whether it is on the track, the road, or a bike, is another option.<\/p>\n

You will find that the direct benefits, improved cognitive and executive functions, are\u00a0eclipsed by the many indirect benefits\u2014reduced stress, improved mood, stronger body, better sleep, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, a 1999 Duke University Medical School study<\/a> took over 100 patients suffering from depression and divided them into three groups: (1) a group that took the drug Zoloft for 16 weeks; (2) a group that exercised 30 minutes a day, four times per week, for 16 weeks; and (3) a group that took Zoloft and did the exercise.\u00a0\u00a0 Remarkably, at the end of the study, all three<\/em> groups experienced the same average drops in levels of depression.\u00a0 This means that exercise had the same exact effects on mood and depression as Zoloft, but with none of the side effects.<\/p>\n

So, what are you waiting for?\u00a0 Get out today<\/em> and start walking, running, jumping, or whatever you can do to get your heart rate pumping and your sweat glands working.\u00a0 You may just find that exercise is the medicine you never knew you needed.\u00a0 And hopefully it pays off for exams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Wes Cochrane (L’18) Can you just be Jack for a moment and allow me to peddle you some magic beans?\u00a0 At this point in the fall semester, with exams approaching and the flickering feelings of burnout rearing their unwelcome heads, you may be looking for some magic beans, that silver bullet, that little dose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2177,"featured_media":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29934],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice-from-students-and-alumni"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/files\/2015\/07\/cropped-cdo_home1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/richmondlawcdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}